James Gunn's Superman may be setting up The Authority movie with its enigmatic villain The Engineer

By now most people have heard of the other heroes appearing in writer/director James Gunn's Superman reboot movie beyond the Man of Steel, including Metamorpho and the Justice Gang. But the villainous Engineer may be more of a mystery to many fans, as her comic book history doesn't even begin with the DC Universe, but with WildStorm, a separate superhero reality that was once also a separate publisher from DC.

In fact, the Engineer seen in Superman, Angelica Spica (played by María Gabriela de Faría in the film) is actually the second person to take up that name in comics. And while her role in the film seems to be confined to being one of Lex Luthor's henchmen, the fact that an Authority movie was announced as part of James Gunn's first wave of DC projects means she could play a much bigger role in the new cinematic DC Universe down the road.

The Engineer in comics

Like all the characters of the team the Authority, the Engineer began as part of the WildStorm Universe, which was itself initially published through Image Comics. Created in 1992 by Image co-founder Jim Lee (now DC president, publisher, and chief creative officer), WildStorm was sold to DC in 1998, making all its characters and titles part of DC's purview, though they wouldn't be part of the DC Universe proper for more than a decade.

The characters of the WildStorm reality became a part of the core DC Universe in 2011's 'New 52' line-wide reboot, which brought characters and story elements from outside the primary DC reality into mainstream continuity, including the Authority. Though the WildStorm team was initially created as sort of a darker, more violent reflection of the classic heroes of the Justice League, the 'New 52' brought them into the same world as their brighter, more outwardly superheroic counterparts.

With that history lesson aside, here's the important stuff you need to know about the Engineer. First off, as stated above, she's actually the second hero of that name in WildStorm/DC continuity, having inherited it from the original Engineer, a member of StormWatch, the team that preceded the Authority.

A fan of superheroes from a young age, Angela Spica becomes a super-scientist, leading her to connect with the original Engineer, who sends her all his notes and experimental tech as a contingency when he's killed in battle, leading her to make her own breakthroughs and to take up his heroic mantle.

The Engineer in Superman

As seen in the trailers for Superman, the Engineer's powers lie in one of the most polarizing aspects of superhero movies - nanotech. Though it's often used as a way for heroes to avoid having to change their clothes or take their masks on and off, the Engineer uses her own nanotech to create all kinds of weaponry, including the ability to make fully functional copies of herself.

Whether all of those abilities will come into play in the film remains to be seen, though trailers have shown the Engineer using her nanotech powers to create blades and other kinds of deadly weapons while invading Superman's Fortress of Solitude and dispatching his robot helpers.

We still don't know much about how the Authority will factor into the new DC Universe, as very little about their movie has been revealed since James Gunn initially announced it.

That said, Gunn has stated that Superman's story will pick up in a movie that's not exactly a direct sequel, and in comics, Superman himself once led a version of the Authority into a mission in space, so there could be big things in the works.

We'll find out more about how the Engineer fits into the new DC Studios universe when Superman hits theaters on July 11. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming DC movies and shows for everything else the DCU has on the way.